Morning journal and courier., 1887-02-14
Preparing for a Guest.


 Perhaps your expected guest is an old school friend towards whom you wish to
 show all courtesy while impressing her with | the fact of your we'll regulated home. | Urged on by these laudable desires, be care ful that you do not rather present her with a false picture of your home life, which shall be as uncomfortable as it is unnatural. Be- cause Cor instance your friend may live in l the city, where by the nature of things she i is obliged to have late dinners, it is not ne | cessary to upset your husbands business ar | engagements, the children's digestions and | the cooks temper by delaying your one | o'clock dinner till six. The consequence of
 this domestic upheaval will be apparent eve | ry hour of the day; your guest will see them 1 and be made uncomfortable, your cook will
 make the change of base au excuse for every l neglect, while you in trying to remedy these | will become tired and irritable, to say noth- 1 ing of being obliged to cancel plea-ant en- agreements in order to attend to home mat 1 ters In a word you will make yourself a
 world of extra trouble and fail entirely of
 your purpose to make your guest 'feel at 1 home" The fact is that ten to one she does l not wish to feel at home in just that way. | This very trip may have been taken in hopes of entire change not only of air and scene, but of household ways. There comes to everyone at times, especially if she is very domestic home keeper, such weariness of her own ways and distaste for her own food that her sated organism needs complete change. If in seeking this she finds only an imperfect imitation of the methods she has | left behind, she feeIs disappointment that actually clouds her visit
 The temporary change to an early dinner | and different diet may have been exactly what her sick stomach eraved, and your al iteration of household arrangements has thus prevented her from experiencing the benefit
 she desired. Let me in illustration draw upon my own experience.
 Our breakfast being fate affair, is rather
 formal meal, at which all the family are present, requiring the housekeepers strict attention, so naturally have always had 'shankering' for an informal lettering in an easy chair over my coffee and the morning
 paper. Imagine then my feelings when, upon visiting an artist friend, his wife re-
 marked as we were about separating for the
 night:
 'Now, John, do get mp to morrow so that
 we can breakfast together like Christians! Do you know Burning to mel we have 3 dreadfully loose way of eating that meal
 here-a sort of 'go-as you please arrange | ment'-which permits each one to take it just when, where and how he chooses" 'Oh!" cried I, 'it's just what I longed for all my lifei Don't, please don't, try to | change it in theleast'-and really my most | delightful remembrances of that visit are of l those Bohemian morning meals, eaten some times With companion or two, OlC6Her Wltn i only the daily journal for company, toasting | my feet and perhaps too my brown bread be- fore the grate, and helping myself from the l freshly filled tray beside me.
 Granting then that the family life should i go cn in it's usual groove, there still some | careful arrangements that can never be amiss | in the preparation for visitors, and among l the first in importance are those pertaining | to the guest chamber.
 l This room is of course as neat and well | furnished as your means will allow. but
 there are special comforts which will occur 1 only to loving care and forathought. IT | there is no bathroom adjoining there should l be an abundance of water, towels and | sponges provided, also all those little toilet 1 accessories dear to every feminine heart, lest 1 by some mischance she may have forgotten her own. But in addition to the toilet pot l ties we must not forget the cafnphof ana
 cordials which sudden illness may require | and have every bottle plainly labeled Many
 a guest has suffered the long night through for the lack of some simple remedy which
 she would not disturb her hostess to procure, | and one that I know of was nearly mad dened with pain by mistaking all unlabeled 1 bottle of ammonia for cologne.
 If there is only one bathroom in the house let her room be furnished with a foot bath
 at least, in case she should not care to run | the gauntlet to the family tub.
 | These toilet matters all carefully looked to
 have if possible one table in the room soiid
 enough to write upon, and provided witf
 every material for that purpose. A sleep
 less fit may be often agreeably passed by in